Smith defends not bowling out Zampa

India skipper MS Dhoni couldn't hide his glee as Australia left for overs of spin unbowled in their World Twenty20 clash in Mohali overnight.

Virat Kohli smashed an unbeaten 82 from 51 balls to lead India to a six-wicket win that put the hosts into a semi-final against the West Indies and extended Australia's barren run in the 20-over format.

Adam Zampa had been a revelation for Australia at the World T20, earning man-of-the-match honours against Bangladesh and widespread praise throughout the month.

But the leg-spinner delivered just two overs in the side's defeat to India, prompting some pundits to label Aussie skipper Steve Smith's bowling changes a mistake and a "big error of judgement".

Opposing skipper Dhoni, fresh from hitting the winning runs, wore a wry smile as he assessed the victory in his post-match meeting with the media.

"The wicket was not easy to bat on," Dhoni said.

"The back of a length deliveries, it was quite difficult to get it away. Especially the spinners, the good thing was I don't think they bowled too many spinners."

Zampa finished with figures of 0-11 from his two overs, while Glenn Maxwell went for 0-18 from his two overs of off-spin.

Both tweakers were belted for a six but otherwise kept it tight. Kohli scored 17 runs from 14 balls against Zampa and Maxwell, and had just three singles from six balls against the leg-spinner.

From Kohli's 37 balls against Australia's pace attack he plundered 65 runs, including 19 runs from the 18th over bowled by James Faulkner and another 16 from the 19th bowled by Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Former Australia limited-overs player and Melbourne Stars skipper David Hussey said he was surprised Zampa wasn't bowled more.

"Adam Zampa has been the find of the tournament for Australia and he only bowled two overs, so a little bit surprising that," Hussey told SEN.

"It is an odd mistake but with T20 cricket there's so many things going on, you have too many things to think about you keep looking up to the scoreboard to see which bowlers have bowled which.

"For Steve that's a big error of judgement, especially for Zampa, he was probably the one bowler the Indians didn’t want to face."

Former India batsman Aakash Chopra and ex-South Africa skipper Graeme Smith were among those who took to social media on the issue.

Smith conceded he might have done some things differently if he had his time again, as is always the case after a loss.

But the 26-year-old had no regrets about throwing the ball to Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile in an effort to break Kohli's game-changing partnership with Dhoni.

"I just thought at that period of time they were just starting to go. I thought the quicks could do the job, bowling the ball into the wicket," Smith said.

"Like they did so well in the last game. It just wasn't to be tonight."

Zampa will soon join Smith at new Indian Premier League franchise Rising Pune Supergiants.

The 23-year-old was only given one over during Australia's tournament-opening loss to New Zealand.

Zampa insisted he had no problem with being largely overlooked at Dharamsala.

"I always want the ball in my hand but Smith is a great tactical captain and we got it right I think," he said last week.